The Inevitable
by The Other Konoha
Summary: A NaruSaku, SasuKarin and ShikaTema fanfiction. The alliance is in trouble. Konoha has a new, unknown and powerful enemy. Naruto and Sakura, Shikamaru and Temari and Sasuke and Karin are dealing with their feelings at the same time as they take part into the new Konoha's fighting against the small countries after the war.
1. Chapter 1

_**Chapter 1**_

Sakura was holding a leave between her fingers while resting her chin in her arm over the rail of the bridge.

It has been just 3 days since her sensei, the best medical ninja of the continent and one of the legendary Sannins, Tsunade passed away and everyone in Konoha seems to have already forgotten about it. She came to the bridge to take some air and to be away from… from what?

What was she running from?

She hasn't an answer. She doesn't need it. She just wanted to be alone for a while.

Being Tsunade's only student left in the village has gotten Sakura a lot of new responsibilities after her sensei's death. That's the reason why she hadn't had a lot of time to really think about what happened some days ago.

After the war, Tsunade left the Hokage's position to Kakashi and then started helping out on the village in different ways. Then, it was known that some small countries had made an alliance to try to topple the bigger countries now that war was just over and they weren't at their best condition. Tsunade offered to go gather information for Konoha, but she encountered something more powerful than a little-countries-alliance. Whatever it was, it was strong enough to kill her.

They found Tsunade still breathing near a small village not too far away from Konoha. Tsunade was in a coma-like state but it was something pretty different from everything they had seen before. She went conscious again 2 days after that but still had many weird symptoms and couldn't even get up from bed. She started studying her case, trying to figure out a cure for her condition in case they needed it in the future if a confrontation with that unknown enemy occurred.

She couldn't remember how it happened or who did that to her, but she was certain that it was not caused by poison. She got a lot of answers that could be useful to save her.

Unfortunately, it was too late for her already.

She died at night 2 weeks after she was found.

Now, everyone seems to have forgotten about Tsunade. Sakura knows that life has to keep going, but for some reason watching the kids playing, her friends taking missions or even the birds singing as if anything had happened, made her mad.

While she's still turning the leave with her fingers she's thinking about how Naruto and Sasuke should've felt after losing a lot of important persons for them.

She was sure that Naruto hasn't forgotten about Tsunade yet. After all, they were very close too. She was like a grandma for him. He'd lost Jiraiya, his sensei, a few years ago and now Tsunade was gone too.

"Naruto…" she left out of her mouth with a sigh and slowly attempted to close her eyes for a while. She wanted to see him. He was probably the only one who would understand her pain right now.

"What is it, Sakura-chan?"

She jumped out of surprise before her upper eyelids could touch the lowers.

"Wha…ah..?! Naruto!?"

"Yes… what is it, Sakura-chan?" His big smile made her blush at first but then she felt a little angry with him because he was smiling like that even in a situation like this. And what made her really mad was that little and subtle smile that escaped from her mouth at the sight of his.

"Nothing…" she hid her face from him, turned away and said "it seems you don't understand it either". He wasn't supposed to be smiling. SHE wasn't supposed to be smiling.

"What is it, Sakura-chan?" She couldn't see him but his smile was gone too and his voice was full of pain and concern "is it about the old lady Tsunade?"

He waited for an answer that never came. Her breath rhythm made him know that she was about to cry. "I know how you feel. It hurts a lot, doesn't it?" his voice wasn't strong anymore but it kept its courage "I know it does, but I also know that no matter what I'll find the one who did this. We'll have answers and eventually that answers are gonna save a lot of lives and Tsunade's dead won't be a waste" he could now see her tilting her head down "that's a promise".

That words warmed her heart.

Now she was crying. She was crying for the first time since Tsunade's death.

When she turns again, Naruto is gone. He knows her so well that he knew that she wanted to be alone. That simple thought casts a tiny smile on her mouth again, even if tears were still rolling down her face.

* * *

Temari was amused. From all the people in this world he was the only one that could make her feel nervous and at the same time filled her with a very warm feeling on her chest. Just walking with him made her happy.

"It seems that meetings are gonna be like this from now on, don't you think? I mean, now that Tsunade's gone the medic-ninja-school's idea sounds almost impossible" That's him, with his this-is-so-troublesome-I'd-rather-quit thoughts. But he never quitted and that's what made Temari stay with him, what made her want to help him, to cheer him up.

"I'm sure that when that pink haired girl… Sakura?" she knew almost every Konoha's face but she was still trying to remember their names "I'm sure when she gets over her sensei's death she's gonna do her best to get that project done sooner or later".

When they got to the hotel, Shikamaru stopped, sighed and said "I guess so", looking at her with an expression that was impossible to read, even for her.

Temari didn't want to say goodbye yet. Next meeting would be in just 2 days, but something inside of her screamed that she wanted to spend more time with him. Of course, she couldn't let him or anyone else to know that, that'd be embarrassing. But it was something that she really wanted. The time they've spent together had turned precious for her.

"Thanks for escorting me here. See you next meeting!" She turned and opened the hotel's door before she heard his voice again.

"Oe!" she freezes, turned towards him holding the door and feeling her face warming more and more with every second that their eyes met. She even believed that her heart was about to explode. "Next meeting is in two more days. What are you planning to do till then?" She noticed how his face was a little blushed too, even when he tried to hide it avoiding looking in her direction.

"Why? Do you have something on mind?" she said with a big smile on her face and placing a hand on her waist.

"Well, maybe we could hang around… you know, kill some time together or something" He placed his hands behind his head to pretend he was completely calmed "I mean, if you have nothing else to do".

She was so happy and so nervous that she couldn't find the right words to answer to that proposition. She tried her best at hiding her nervousness, smiled again and said "see you tomorrow then". Then she felt the urge to run. She turned around and entered into the hotel with a bigger smile and her cheeks bright red, and just when the door closed completely, she could hear Shikamaru whistling happily while walking away and she felt relieved that he probably was feeling the same way as she did.

* * *

Sasuke was home. He had just returned from his one year travel and many things had changed since he left the village. First of all, the Hokage's position was still occupied by Tsunade and now she wasn't even alive anymore. That wasn't a big deal for him because he didn't really know her, but it surely was for his friends and his sensei that now was called the sixth Hokage.

On the second hand, Sasuke had had a lot of time during his travel to think about what he was going to do next. But he had just one thing decided for sure: he was going to restore his clan. He was sure he wanted that and he knew he would first need to find someone to… you know, help him. He wanted to find someone to form a family with. He wanted a family and he wanted it to be a good family like the one he once lost. But he hadn't really thought about who could possibly be that one person, the one who could be a good mother, a good wife and over all, a good partner for life.

When he surprises himself thinking about that, he stops himself. He knows he'll find that person eventually, but the priority now was to relax and clear his mind in order to be ready for his next mission.

He starts taking off his clothes to take a bath. As soon as the hot water touches his skin he takes a deep breath, closes his eyes and tries to remember everything that was said in his meeting with Kakashi this morning. He was told to go meet the sixth when he had just crossed the village's big gates.

First of all, Kakashi told him that he was glad he was back on the village and then told him everything that was known by the time about Tsunade and the smaller countries' conspiracy against the Ninja Alliance's countries. Then, when he thought it was over, Kakashi told him "…so you may want to have some rest as soon as possible because it is more than possible that we'll need you to go looking for information about who or what killed Tsunade-sama and it's connection to the smaller countries. And I'm not trusting anyone on such an important and dangerous mission other than Naruto or you."

He couldn't stop the subtle smile that appeared at his face with this thought. He may be put again in a mission with that usuratonkachi and that sounded interesting. It was hard for him to admit it but he really missed that dumbass. He felt like he owed him too much.

He opens his eyes again. It is almost 5 o'clock and he remembers he hadn't eaten anything since last night so he gets out of the tub, wraps a towel around his waist and walks to the kitchen. He knows there's anything eatable now but it is an old custom from that year he spent living here after the war.

He had completely forgotten about the bunch of letters on the kitchen's table. He found them all lying at his door. He walks towards them, takes some and starts reading and putting away what doesn't seem interesting for reading them later.

He keeps putting letters away till he reads who sent the first letter on the second bunch that he takes: Karin Uzumaki.


	2. Chapter 2

The tiny sun beam that could made it through the curtains falls directly over Shikamaru's eyes, making it impossible for him to keep sleeping even though he tightens his eyelids trying to keep the sunlight out of his eyes. He quits and sits in his bed with a quick move. When he looks out of the window he's able to see as the sun goes up in the horizon.

It must be not even 8:00am and he hated the idea of going out of bed that early in the morning. Usually he would have just closed the curtains and go back to sleep, but today was different. He wanted to go out of bed and get ready because today was the day she was going back home and he wouldn't let that happen without seeing her once again before she leaved.

He took a shower, put on his usual clothes and leaved his home with one and only one thing in mind: he didn't want to say goodbye.

The hotel where she was staying was just 2 blocks away from his home so it just took him 2 minutes to get there even with his usual slow walk. When he got there, his heart was racing but he tries to keep calm and walks in to talk with the receptionist.

"Welcome. How can I help you?"

"I'm looking for a girl named Temari. Room 23 if I'm not wrong". The receptionist didn't have to look on the keychain on her hand to answer "I'm afraid she left the hotel an hour ago".

He couldn't believe it. She didn't even say goodbye. Maybe he'd say something wrong at the meeting last night when they had taken different sides on the argument about the Ninja Alliance and Knoha's next actions towards the new enemies. While he was arguing that Konoha had to send help to keep guard on every small village near Konoha to gather information about the new threats the Alliance was facing, Temari said that they should rather wait for reinforcements from the other countries because this was an issue that concerned not only Konoha but the whole alliance. At the end it was decided to proceed as Shikamaru said and Temari seemed to agree with that, but when he was about to approach to her to make sure that everything was fine, Kakashi called him and he had a lot to take care of that he couldn't talk to her again.

"Is there anything else I could do for you?"

He shakes his head no and gets out of the hotel to go to the Hokage's office. They didn't agree to meet at the hotel but meeting before the other was parting was something they used to do without having to agree it.

It was nine o'clock when he got to Kakashi's office and he expected to find him sleeping at his desk has usual, but when he opens the door he finds 2 people in there.

* * *

"I'm telling you that was the best thing to do. Gaara gave me his authorization and at least one of my escorts could be of use for that mission so I just-" Temari stopped talking as soon as he stepped into the office and said with his calmed voice after sighting "So here you are" She turns around to see him closing the door behind him and crossing his arms and legs with his back resting on the wall. Judging by what he said he'd been looking for her.

"Please continue, sorry for interrupting" He seemed calmed as always but somehow relieved. She knew he may had looked for her at the hotel as he always did when she was supposed to leave the village and she wanted to apologize for that but she better finished what she was doing before so they could go talking somewhere else.

"As I was saying, Kakashi-sama, it is not a big deal for me to wait here as a support for Konoha and to represent Suna till the reinforcements arrive. Also, if you think that it would be a good opportunity to find out what is causing that many weird deaths I could go on that mission myself to-"

"Sorry to interrupt you again but, what is this all about?" Shikamaru's face had gone serious and he was now approaching to the desk.

"Morning, Shikamaru! We are talking about some issues that I hadn't had the time to discuss with you since they happened last night and were reported to me earlier this morning. Sorry, I didn't even have the time to wake you up." She couldn't see his face behind that mask but she was sure he was smiling as if nothing wrong happened. "The thing is that, as you knew, Sakura left for her mission at sunrise but her escort changed a bit. Instead of sending two anbus with her, this young lady suggested that it would be best to send Sakura with one anbu and one of her Suna's ninjas, and because of that ninja's abilities I agreed with her" Temari was ready to hear whatever Shikamaru had to say about it but he just listened until the end as calmed as always. "Now, about what happened last night, there were 8 attacks reported and at least 7 diseases reported with the same symptoms that killed Tsunade-sama. This happened in 8 different villages placed at distant places, two of them weren't even into this country. Unfortunately this information arrived after Sakura's departure but I hope she can get to the other village in time to gather information of the weird disease. Anyway, that's all by now. Any questions?"

She knew he wasn't even considering her offering because he didn't even bothered in telling Shikamaru about it. They both waited for Shikamaru to answer. He was now resting his chin on his hand and his eyes were lost somewhere beyond that room.

"Is there a trace to follow?" He asked "Why don't we send Naruto, Sasuke and a sensorial ninja to follow it? They may find whatever is attacking the villages and if they can´t capture it, they at least could bring useful information about it by the time the alliance's reinforcements arrive" There it was… Kakashi may have known this would happen and that was why he didn't say anything about her idea. He suggested exactly what she had suggest. He just added Sasuke's name on the plan and she couldn't agree more with that. She smiled.

"You see, Temari? There's no need for you to go. You, at times like this, may be more useful staying here like Shikamaru does" He winks and she can't help but blush. And when Shikamaru turns to finally face her she smiles kindly to him but her heart keeps calmed until he smiles too and a warm and sweet feeling flows inside of her.

* * *

Sasuke had forgotten for a moment that he wasn't running alone. The last lines from that letter kept dancing in his mind like leaves falling from a tall tree.

 _"I know you're not the same kid I met in the forest that day but I always wanted to see that sweet smile again. Maybe that's impossible now, but I'm glad to see that you're not alone and that you are able to smile again even if it's not thanks to me. I guess I tried so hard that I ended up failing._

 _Sorry about that, but remember you'll always be a very important person to me, more important than you'll ever imagine._

 _Take care of yourself and of your dumbass friends till next time we see._

 _With love_

 _Karin Uzumaki"_

He didn't even know what to think about it. He just kept repeating those lines on his head over and over again because whenever he did it, there was something on them that made him feel… made him feel… he wasn't sure, but he liked it.

"You're really lost, aren't you?" There was the #1 dumbass "What were you thinking about all this time?" He felt his cheeks and ears warming and he tried to go faster but Naruto came after him "Ok, ok, I get it… love isn't easy, right?" He really wanted to punch him right away.

"Shut up, usuratonkachi" He said, trying to sound calmed but he still wanted to punch him "Call me when you're out of the friend zone and then I may answer that question" When Naruto changed his I-know-what-you're-thinking dumb smiling face for a you're-an-asshole face he smiled triumphantly. Unfortunately, that pleasure didn't last too long.

"You had to make fun of me to change the subject but you didn't deny it" Naruto said in a mocking tone and Sasuke almost lost it. Then, Naruto added "HEY! There it is! That's the village where we're supposed to meet with that other ninja, right?"

He was right. There was another ninja joining them for this mission and they were supposed to meet her in this one village that had been attacked 2 days ago at midnight. The first of 9 attacks occurred that night and now they were there to start following that trace.

They entered into the village and went straight to the hotel where they were supposed to meet their new teammate. They asked for the room's second key, just as they were told and went there in silence. All that Sasuke was asking for was for their new teammate to be strong enough to not be a burden to them.

And when Naruto finally opened the door, he's able to see it. Her long-red hair moving with the wind that came through the window and that beautiful pale face with those brown glasses resting on her slim nose. She was looking out of the window but he could easily tell who she was without failing. Not every red haired girl liked to cover most of their bodies because of bite scars anyway.


	3. Chapter 3

"What are you doing here?" Sasuke's voice sounded like a sweet and calmed symphony at Karin's ears, but that didn't kept her from feeling uneasy when she saw him again after that long.

"You know her?" Naruto asked. Karin recognized him from the war but had never talked to him. He seemed dumber than she thought for being a war hero. Sasuke didn't pay attention to his question so Karin started talking instead.

"Orochimaru sent me. He's interested on that weird ability that everyone have been talking about lately. Also, he wouldn't admit it but I think he did feel something about Tsunade's dead." She said, playing it cool so that her nervousness wouldn't be noticed.

"Do you mean you weren't the partner sent by the alliance?" Naruto asked. She knew she would have to explain everything, but Sasuke were just there, looking blankly at her, making her even more nervous. She may have promised herself that she would try to be just friends with Sasuke and try to forget any other feeling she had for him, but that eyes just kept giving her that warm feeling inside of her chest.

"Well, as you may know," she says turning towards the window again so that she can pretend Sasuke is not there, "Orochimaru is trying to do everything that's possible to stick to the agreement he made with the alliance for his freedom and it constrains him to fulfill any favor he's asked for". She turns to face Naruto, avoiding at all cost Sasuke's look. "They asked him for a sensorial ninja and here I am. I guess that makes me 'that partner sent by the alliance'?"

"Cool! So, what have you-"

"Leave" Naruto was interrupted by Sasuke. Karin was taken off guard, but apparently just Sasuke knew who he was talking with because the blond boy also looked in his direction.

"Why?!" Naruto claimed.

"Not you, usuratonkachi" Karin was stunned. He was definitely talking to her. "I need to talk to him. Can you give us a moment?" She was less than happy with that, but she wouldn't let them notice how much she cared so she just adjusted her glasses and left the room. At least it was a good opportunity to her to chill out and put her head in place.

* * *

Sasuke didn't know why, but he felt something weird inside of him when she walked past him. He was somehow disturbed by her presence.

"What's wrong, Sasuke?"

"I… I'm not sure we can trust her" He knew her, he trusted her, but he didn't like something about her being there. "She's one of Orochimaru's supporters. Unlike me she's been with him most of his life and she was willing to do whatever he asked her."

"But she said-"

"I know Orochimaru's supposed to be in good terms with Konoha and the alliance, but it is hard to know his real intentions." He wasn't lying about Orochimaru, but Karin…

"Ok, I get it. So what do you suggest?" Naruto trusted him, but he also knew him so well that Sasuke knew he wouldn't be able to keep with the I-don't-trust-her-lie too long.

"Keeping an eye on her should be enough for now. We have to trust in her abilities anyway, just make sure to not let your guard down". When Naruto nodded, Sasuke went to open the door just to find Karin sleeping in the hallway.

"Hey, Sasuke. What is taking you so long?" He hadn't noticed he stayed standing there looking at her for a while until he heard Naruto behind him. Naruto walked towards Karin, touched her shoulder and said "Hey… etto…"

He knew Naruto wouldn't stop till she woke up, so he stopped him. "Karin must be exhausted. Probably she stayed up last night keeping watch so just let her rest" Sasuke approached them "We should do the same. This village hadn't been attacked yet so here's nothing we can use to gather information. We'll be gone by sunrise and this could be our last chance to rest till the mission is over."

"Hey, who made you the leader?"

"I'll keep watch first" Naruto entered the room again, letting Sasuke alone with Karin again. He leaned putting his knee on the ground, getting closer to Karin to wake her up. He would like to lift her and take her into the room without waking her, but there was no way he could do that with just one arm.

Suddenly it hit him. He got that strange and comforting warm feeling again and a tiny smile escaped from his mouth.

He stayed like that for a while, looking at her with a smile on his face until…

"Is everything alright?" Naruto suddenly reappeared at the door, surprising Sasuke who wasn't happy about it.

"YOU BAKA!..." He could feel his cheeks and ears getting warmer and warmer "Be of use for once and help me to take her inside"

* * *

Sasuke woke him up at some point of the night. "Your turn"

Naruto walked towards the window trying to keep his eyes open. He hadn't been able to sleep well since Tsunade's dead. He sat at the window's frame and gazed at the horizon where the mountains met the night sky.

He couldn't take Sakura's sad face out of his mind. The last time he saw her was at the bridge 3 days ago when she started crying. He wondered whether she was doing fine now. Maybe that day she really didn't want to be alone, maybe she needed someone to be with her…

No, he knows her better than that and he knows she prefers to deal with that kind of things by herself. If he had tried to help he could have make it worse.

"But what if… argh!" He didn't want to overthink about it but he couldn't help it. It was really painful for him to see her that way every time he closed his eyes.

He rests his head on the window frame again and…

"What was that?" The red haired whispered very close to him and he almost fell out of the window. Naruto couldn't remember her name.

"You shouldn't be awake, I'm on watch now"

"You shouldn't be so loud then. And how do you dare to say you're on watch if you didn't even notice me?" She was right. He was too immersed into his thoughts that he didn't notice she was approaching.

"Sorry for waking you up" He said looking out of the window again "I was just… thinking about something"

"Don't worry" Naruto noticed that her voice softened "I woke up before you started mumbling like that" Her face seemed sad, or worried.

"What was your name, again?"

"I'm Karin Uzumaki"

"UZUMA-" He started in high voice and she put a hand on his mouth.

"Do you wanna wake the entire town up, dobe?!"

"Uzumaki?!" He asked now in lower voice as soon as she took his hand off his mouth "I'm Uzumaki too… does that make us family or something like that? I mean, your hair even looks like my mom's and…"

"Ok, I'm going back to sleep now" She had just turned around when she stumbled into Sasuke's chest. "Sa-Sasuke?!"

"What were you two doing?"

"Who is the one surprised now?" Said Naruto happily.

"I was heading back to-" Something exploded. It wasn't near them. They got out by the window and were looking for any kind of sign that could tell them where an explosion had occurred when suddenly another explosion occurred behind a hill. "There's another small village over there" As soon as she pointed that out, they all started running in that direction.


	4. Chapter 4

As they were approaching the blast site, Karin could perceive a weird chakra scattered all over the place. It was subtle, but it was there and the whole small village seemed empty. Sasuke and Naruto were near behind her.

Suddenly she felt the weird chakra even closer and behind them. She stopped and turned just to find Sasuke and Naruto's surprised faces and a stranger behind them. It was so fast that it took them all for surprise.

"Well, well, well… what a wonderful surprise!" His… no, her voice sounded like a kid's but she was pretty tall. Her face was covered with a hood. Naruto and Sasuke jumped back to Karin's side as fast as they could and they three went on guard. "Hey! Take it easy! I won't hurt you" It seemed she was really having fun.

"Who the hell are you?!" Naruto shouted. He really wanted to talk on a situation like that? He really was dumber than she thought.

"That's irrelevant." The hooded girl made an attempt to move forward and rise her hand.

"STOP!" Shouted Sasuke stopping Naruto from attacking the girl and probably stopping the stranger too. Then he aimed his sword at the girl and continued "You're coming with us"

"Hahaha… really?" Said the girl. Karin could now see her smiling mouth. "Don't think so" She was amazingly fast. She jumped over them and with a quick move she hit Karin's nape. Karin fainted and fell forward.

"Karin!" Sasuke caught her with his one arm, dropping the sword.

"Damn it!" Naruto went after the hooded girl. He followed her till they were almost outside the small village, but when he thought he was shortening the distance between them, she turned to face him and showing that weird smile on her face again, she vanished.

Naruto abruptly stopped. He had seen that kind of vanishing before. He was pretty sure it was something only the ones with sharingan were capable to do. "Damn it!" He was about to go back with Sasuke and Karin when he felt a hand touching his nape and heard the girl's voice again saying "We'll meet again soon, I promise!" But when he turned around with a fist ready to punch her he found no one there.

He started to feel dizzy but managed to get where his comrades were and as soon as he put a knee on the ground to help Sasuke, his head started hurting so bad that he thought his head might explode.

"What happened?" Asked Sasuke, and when he saw Naruto holding his head with a painful expression he asked "Are you ok?"

"Yeah… I'm fine. Let's get out of here" Naruto's headache was attenuating and the dizziness had passed. Soon he was feeling better again. He carried Karin on his back all the way to the place where they spent the night.

* * *

Shikamaru was nervous. She was sure of it.

Even though they were at Yakiniku Q with Ino and Chouji, Shikamaru had been quietly looking at how his hands were playing with a pen since they got there.

"So, Temari, how's everything going in Suna?" Ino's question got her out of her thoughts. "I heard that one of the attacks took place on the borderline with your country, it's been the only attack there so far, right?"

"Well, I hadn't received any information about an attack on my country, so I guess that's been the only one" She was getting a little uncomfortable. Temari could see with the corner of her right eye how Shikamaru was still playing with that pen, but now she could also feel Shikamaru's eyes staring her.

"That's good! That way you won't have to go back soon, right Shikamaru?" Ino probably had noticed that Shikamaru was acting weird too. She was a very close friend of him anyway. "Is everything ok, Shikamaru?" He hadn't taken his eyes off her yet and he didn't until she looked at him too. Then he slowly returned to stare at that pen in his hands.

"What's wrong, Shikamaru?" Chouji finally stopped biting the rib he had on his hands. "Are you-"

"Shikamaru!" A pretty young lady with long black hair and blue framed glasses popped out of nowhere "I've been looking for you all day! Where the hell have you been?" Temari noticed almost immediately the crimson color of that girl's lips and her hazelnut eyes behind her glasses. She was a pretty good looking girl.

Shikamaru sighted and stood up. "Ok, ok, you found me." He offered her the pen.

"Is this my pen?" She took it with a fast move. "Stop playing around! We have tons of work to do!"

"Sorry, but I have to go" He sighted again. "How problematic" The girl took him by the hand and started dragging him out of the place, but before they got too far he turned his face to them and said "See you!"

"Ok… that was weird" Said Ino when the other two were gone.

"Yeah… who was that girl anyway?" Temari didn't know why but she suddenly felt the need to punch that girl in the face.

"I have no idea. I'd never seen her before" It didn't seem like it was a big deal for Ino, so she had no idea why she cared that much.

"Her name is Tomoko" Said Chouji between bites. "She's the lead medic ninja in Sakura's absence and Shikamaru is working with her analyzing the information that Sakura had sent from the villages she's been to"

"How do you know that?" Asked Ino. It was as if she couldn't believe that Chouji knew something about Shikamaru that she didn't.

"Two days ago I ran into Shikamaru, and while we were talking she appeared and left with Shikamaru just as she did just now. But that day she at least had the courtesy to introduce herself" He gave the last bite to his rib and put the bone away. "I guess today she really was in a hurry"

Ino and Temari exchanged a look showing no expression till Ino asked "So… what have you been doing lately?" For some reason Temari wasn't able to take the picture of that girl holding Shikamaru's hand and getting away out of her head.

"I'm working with Kakashi, helping him to coordinate the watch in all the villages with the help of the Suna's shinobis that got here three days ago" Now she was the one looking down at the table. "I have to go now. Thanks for the meal"

Ino looked at her worried, and Chouji even stopped eating his last rib to look as she was getting out of there but she didn't care. She needed to be alone.

* * *

Naruto left Sasuke taking care of Karin in a half destructed house. He had to find out what happened before they got there and where were all the people. He wandered the town for a while but apparently there was no one to be found.

"It's useless" Said Kurama from inside of him.

"No, we have to keep looking. What would be the point on attacking a ghost town?" They kept looking for any sign of life until…

"Hey boy, stop! Can you feel that?" Kurama was right, he could feel a little and weak amount of chakra coming from under a pile of rubble. Naruto got closer and…

"No way" He whispered to himself when he saw that pink hair coming out from under the rubble. His eyes started to fill with tears and his whole body started shaking. He's only seen one girl with that color of hair in his life.

"Calm down!" Screamed Kurama. "Take the rubble away"

Naruto tried to calm down but his hands wouldn't stop shaking. He approached to the rubble, took some stones and put them away, but when he turned to the rubble again and looked for the pink hair, it was gone. He was surprised and didn't know what to expect anymore. He rushed and started to take the rubble away as fast as he could. When he finally could see the ground he found a dirty carpet.

"There it is. The chakra is coming from that spot on the ground" Naruto heard Kurama but he was still stunned. "Look under the carpet, you baka!" When he finally moved the carpet, a kunai flew from a hole in the ground and he barely dodged it.

"Get away from us!" Screamed a woman's voice from the hole.

"I'm not gonna hurt you… I'm Naruto Uzumaki from Konoha" He waited for an answer but instead of that, a pink haired girl pumped out of the ground, but she wasn't the one Naruto expected to find. Her hair was longer than Sakura's, her face was rounded and her eyes were almost completely black. She looked at him as if she wasn't sure she could trust him and then she asked "Is she gone now?"

"What?" Asked Naruto back.

"She's gone, right? The crazy girl with the hood" Naruto nodded. "It's ok!" She screamed towards the hole. "The crazy girl is gone and this guy's apparently a Konoha's ninja" She smiled at him. 'Apparently?' Naruto thought, but before he could replay he started seeing how a lot of people were coming out from the hole on the ground. The last man who came out needed help from others. He was an anbu but he didn't look ok. He even needed help to walk.

When the anbu was finally sitting on the ground, Naruto approached to him. "What happened here? What happened to you?"

He made a huge effort to talk "I was sent by Konoha to protect this town. We made a plan in case we needed to hide and when that weird girl appeared almost all the people made it into the bunker I made"

"You made it?"

"Yeah… I'm a doton user. We needed more space so I made it bigger once we all were down there"

"And what happened to you?" Naruto asked while he could hear how the pink haired girl was counting the villagers.

"I… I didn't feel her presence immediately. I was telling all the villagers to be alert and she appeared out of nowhere. She took me by surprise and gently touched the back of my head while she was making fun of me, saying that I would not be able to do nothing. When I turned I saw her face for a fraction of a second. She looked like a little girl and I think I saw a sharingan"

"Sharingan?! I knew it!" He shouted. "Sorry, keep going"

"So, when I tried to stop her she disappeared and I gave the alarm. She appeared again almost immediately and somehow hit me from the back. I couldn't see the hit but it really hurt. I tried to help everyone to get in the bunker, but then we heard her voice again and someone pull me into the bunker. We hid. We could hear her screaming like crazy. She was expecting us to be up here and got really mad when she learned we weren't. She apparently destroyed almost the whole village as if she was throwing a tantrum"

"But then, you're this bad because of that last hit she gave you?"

"I don't know. I didn't feel this bad till I used my doton to make the bunker bigger"

Naruto now had a lot of new information about the enemy. He ensured everyone was ok and promised to send help soon. As fast as he could he wrote down on a scroll everything he learned and sent a frog with it to Konoha.

* * *

He was alone with Karin.

Naruto had left a few hours before. He'd said he was going to investigate the town but it wasn't a big town. What was taking him so long?

Karin hadn't awakened yet. She was laid down on the floor and he was sitting next to her, near to her head. On her barely lit forehead he could see little sweat tears. That couldn't be good. He leaned down to touch her forehead with his right hand and, just as he thought, she was burning. He took his hand off her and leaned his head back. What could he do for her? Who the hell was that strange girl and what had she done to Karin?

Sasuke remembered that the best thing to do when someone had fever was to let the body cool down by itself, and it had to be done uncovering as much of the body as possible. He looked at Karin's clothes. There wasn't a lot he could take off without letting her underwear at sight. He bushed and turned to the other side.

On the other side of the half destroyed room he saw a big hole on the wall and could perceive the cold air that was coming through it. He had a better idea now. He looked at Karin for a brief moment but when he felt his cheeks warming he had to look away again.

He stood up and lifted Karin with the help of his susanoo. He tried to move her quickly to that side of the room so that the air could help her fight that fever. As soon as he put Karin on the ground again he stopped his Susanoo, he knew it would be pretty easy for the enemy to find them following susanoo's chakra trace.

He sat now in front of the hole on the wall with Karin between them. He took her glasses off and put them away. She looked pretty different without her glasses on but he thought she was still beau…

"augh!" He stood up and walked to the wall to take a look outside. What was he thinking about? Karin was his ally, his friend… Was it wrong to think that she was also beautiful? He rested his back against the broken wall and looked at the moon while he was trying to figure out why or when he had started to think like that.

He stood there for a while. He could hear nothing but Karin's and his own breath, but suddenly Karin started shivering. Sasuke leaned down to touch her forehead again, the fever had lowered a bit but she was still warmer than she should be.

He returned to the wall. She was still shivering, he didn't like to see her that way but there was nothing he could do for her till the fever was gone. He sat by her side again, this time between Karin and the wall but facing to the street and with his one hand behind him. Suddenly he felt soft and cold fingers touching his hand. He turned and confirmed it was Karin's hand. His cheeks turned red again but he didn't push away her hand, she was at ease again so he stayed there, sighted and closed his eyes.


	5. Chapter 5

He had almost fallen asleep when Karin finally woke up. Sasuke realized it by the cold he felt on his hand when Karin took her hand away.

"Why were you touching my hand?" She said with a rude voice but her cheeks all red. She was now sitting with her back against a wall and holding her right hand, the one that had been upon Sasuke's almost all night, as if someone was trying to take it from her.

"It was you who were touching mine" He said while looking at the moon by the broken wall again. He hadn't moved his hand at all "Plus, I needed to know when your fever would be gone"

"You were taking care of me?" Sasuke didn't answer. He would never admit it but he was really relieved that she was better now. "What happened there?"

"You don't remember? That weird girl hit the back of your head and you fainted"

"Oh… yes, now I remember" Karin looked around. "Where's Naruto?" She tried to stand up but was still too weak and fell back to her sit.

Sasuke stood up with a quick move and started walking towards Karin. "He went looking for information about this ghost town" He stopped just in front of her and offered his hand. Karin took it and he helped her to stand up. "Can you walk?" Karin nodded. "That dobe is being out there for too long, it must be faster if we look for him. We have to-" While he was talking, Karin started to feel dizzy and her feet weakened again. But before she reached the ground, Sasuke saved her with his arm… or so he thought.

She had fallen forward and Sasuke hadn't reacted as fast as he thought so his arm didn't go all the way across Karin's waist and his hand had ended on her left breast.

They didn't move immediately.

They shared a look, trying to understand the situation. Both their faces were all red and with confusion all over them. Then Karin's face started filling with anger. Karin was kneeled now and the dizziness was gone. Sasuke finally moved his hand slowly away from Karin's body and his eyes started opening wider as if he had finally realized what he had done.

"I…amm… I…" mumbled Sasuke, but Karin's face was all red again and she was now looking behind Sasuke. When he turned he saw a very angry blond man approaching to him.

Naruto took him by the shirt neck "WHAT THE HELL WHERE YOU TWO DOING?! I WAS OUT THERE, HELPING ALL THE VILLAGERS AND RECOLLECTING USEFUL INFORMATION AND NOW I FIND YOU HERE-"

Sasuke took him by the shirt neck too "WHAT THE HECK DO YOU THINK WE WHERE DOING, USURATONKACHI!? SHE WAS ABOUT TO FALL AND I-"

"STOP!" screamed Karin, with her face still red and avoiding looking at Sasuke. "We're on a mission, we need to get to the next town as soon as possible" She said, putting her glasses she had just taken from the ground where Sasuke left them some hours ago.

Naruto and Sasuke looked at her, then shared an angry look and slowly released each other. "UGH!" Said Karin and then looked directly at Naruto. "Now, tell us quickly what you found so we can leave now"

"Let's just leave now. I can talk while we run"

"Unfortunally" said Sasuke as they started moving. He was trying to forget what had just happened with Karin.

"Shut up, baka!" Naruto answered, and when he did, he noticed his friend's eyes were looking straight at Karin's back and he looked worried. "Are you ok now, Karin?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't I?" she said without looking back, she knew Sasuke was there and she wasn't yet ready to look at him again.

* * *

"That'd be all for now, Temari" Kakashi yawned, stood up, and before he left his office, he added "You should take the rest of the day off. I heard Shikamaru's taking the day off too" he smiled and before she could answer, he left.

"Why would I care about that?" but she did care. She walked out of the Hokage's office and went to Ino's house. Since she was going to be there for an undefined time, the Yamanaka family had offered her a room and she accepted it. She was tired. It had been some busy days thanks to 3 more attacks on some villages. According to the reports, the enemy's chakra and presence disappeared just after causing a commotion and reappeared just to touch one or two ninjas from the guard they've sent there. And just as Naruto had stated in the message he have sent, the ninjas, after they've been touched begin to feel sick somehow.

There where no one home so she went straight to her room. She had just let her stuff on the floor to lie down on bed when she saw Shikamaru through the window, probably heading home. She hadn't seen him since he left Yakiniku Q with that girl and something inside of her was going crazy. Suddenly, she took her stuff again and rushed out of the house.

She followed him, but she stopped herself from getting closer to him when he stopped in front of a bookstore. She was about to start walking again when the pretty girl with long black hair and blue framed glasses appeared from the bookstore and began talking with Shikamaru.

"What am I doing here?" She thought. "They probably agreed to meet here and I had to follow him" she felt like a complete idiot but couldn't stop herself from seeing them talking. "I don't even stand a chance aga-… WHAT AM I THINKING?! A chance for what? What do I care who he spends his day off with, anyway?" She turned and started walking back to Ino's house when she heard him.

"Hey, Temari!" she didn't what to look at him, but his voice sounded so close that she couldn't pretend she didn't hear him now. He ran to meet her and she turned to face him.

"Oh… hi, Shikamaru! I didn't see you there" she was praying for him to not notice her nervousness.

"Hello!" said the black haired girl. She was so close that Temari could see her hazelnut eyes behind her glasses. "My name is Kirigaya Tomoko. You must be Temari from the Sand, I've heard a lot about you! It's a pleasure to finally meet you, sempai!" she seemed nice but, honestly, Temari couldn't stand her.

"Yeah… nice to meet you too" There was an awkward silence after she mouthed that sentence. Temari was amused by how cute and nice seemed Tomoko, and that was burning her from her insides.

"I should go now" said Tomoko. "It was a pleasure to meet you, Temari-sempai! See you later, Shika!"

Temari couldn't believe it. She had called him 'Shika'. She couldn't handle this anymore. "I should go too" what was she doing there to begin with? She turned to walk towards Ino's when he suddenly grabbed her wrist.

"Hey!" holding her breath and trying to hold back the tears that wanted to flow out of her eyes, Temari turned her red face to look at him over her shoulder. "We haven't-" regardless all her effort to hide her tears, they started to roll out of her eyes. "Wha…what happened?" Temari's heart was beating faster with every second. He seemed worried and now she was feeling like a complete idiot because she was crying over nothing.

"Sorry" she said, freeing her wrist from his grab. "See you later" she said with trembling voice and then began to run. She ran without looking back, feeling the tears rolling down her face. She was confused. She was feeling something but she couldn't tell whether it was happiness, sadness or fear. She wanted to stay with him, but at the same time she didn't want to see him right now. She felt stupid for crying over something she didn't completely understand but she couldn't help it. She just ran to her room and cried her eyes out till she had no more tears to spill.

* * *

"Wait!" Naruto screamed when he saw her. "Is that… SAAKURAA- CHAAN!" he ran faster, leaving Karin and Sasuke behind.

Sakura was on the road talking with an anbu, and pointing at some papers. She raised her head when she heard the familiar voice. "Naruto!?" the blond boy was still far from them but she could see the big smile on his face.

"What are you doing in the middle of the woods, Sakura-chan?" he asked when he was finally there. She wouldn't like to admit it but it was really nice to see him. The last time they met was at the bridge and she acted like a total jerk. That day she was still pretty sensitive about Tsunade's death and, even though she knew he was probably feeling really bad that day too, she didn't try to even listen to him, she didn't even care about his feelings… she felt selfish.

"I should be the one asking that" she gave him a cute smile. Naruto was happy to see her smiling like that. After all, he was worried about her because last time he saw her he couldn't do anything to comfort her and he had even made her cry.

"We're heading to a town that hadn't been attacked yet"

"Oh, you're one of the squads Kakashi is sending to keep watch on-"

"Oh, no, no… we are supposed to be looking for that damn girl but Kakashi sent us the old Pakkun to send us to a town that hadn't been attacked yet, apparently to wait till she shows up-"

"Ok, ok. First of all, what a waste of time! And in second place, who else is with you?"

"I know it is a waste of time to send us there but Sasuke thinks tha-"

"Sasuke?" Sakura seemed confused. "Is he with you? I didn't know he was back!"

Then, Sasuke appeared out of nowhere with Karin in front of him. "Sakura" he said in a monotone voice while approaching to Karin, who was apparently losing her valance again.

"Hi, Sasuke. When did you come back from your trip?" she was kind of amused by how her heart was at ease while talking to him for the first time since he left the village again a year ago.

"A few days ago" Sasuke was now helping Karin to walk closer to Sakura. "She haven't been feeling good, can you check her?" Karin's cheeks went red.

"I'm fine!" Karin said, getting away from Sasuke with clumsy steps. "I probably just need some rest"

"Let her give you a look, just in case, Karin" said Naruto. "She's the best medical ninja in the entire world" those last words put a little smile in Sakura's face as she approached to Karin and told her to lay down.

"What happened?"

"That weird girl touched hit her on the back of her head and she fainted" Naruto answered while Sakura gave Kairn a quick medical check. "I've found nothing wrong with her. As she says, I think she just may need some rest"

"Sakura-san!" the anbu said. "We should go now. We need to be back in Konoha with the rest of the info by the end of the day" Sakura looked at the sky, it was about midday.

"You're right. Sorry for the delay" she helped Karin to stand up again. Sakura wasn't a fool, she had noticed that Sasuke was worried for Karin. "You're a lucky girl, but I won't give up on him that easily" she said quietly so that only Karin could hear her. When those words left her mouth, she was sure about the first part but the second part felt weird and somehow forced. "Good bye, Naruto. Nice to see you, Sasuke!" she and the other two started running and she screamed over her shoulder. "You better be careful if you don't want to make me mad!"

"Take care of yourself, Sakura-chan!" Naruto shouted.

"Let's go now. We're on a mission too, remember?" said Sasuke as he started running.

"What's the point?" Naruto started running after Karin did. "Even Sakura-chan thought it was a waste of time to wait in a place instead of looking for her" Karin was now in the front and Naruto and Sasuke were following her.

"Shut up, dobe!" Sasuke said and then, in a lower voice he added "you think I'm really agree with what Kakashi asked for? We're just staying there till she gets some rest as Sakura said and then we'll be able to look for that bastard as we please" Naruto was amused, he had never seen Sasuke act like that before.

Whispering, Naruto said "you really care about her, don't you?" and an evil grin appeared on his face.

He gave Naruto a death look. "She's part of our team. We need her to be fine or she'll be a drag" Said Sasuke before running faster away from Naruto.


	6. Chapter 6

Ino had just arrived home when someone knocked the door. It was late afternoon already and the flower shop was closed, so she just left her backpack on the floor and opened the door. Shikamaru was standing there with his hands in his pockets.

"Wow!" he seemed worried… maybe even sad?. "What's with the long face, Shikamaru?"

"Yeah, nice to see you too, Ino" the tone he used for those words wasn't a good sign. Now she really knew something was bothering him, but even with all those years of experience as his friend, she wasn't sure what to say next to make him spill everything out and be able to help him. She hadn't seen him like that since Asuma's death. Luckily for her, Shikamaru was who spoke next "Is… is she here?"

"Who? Temari?" what did he do now? she thought. "I don't know, I just got here. Want me to go check?"

"No… I just…" he sighed and then intended to go. "Forget it"

"Shikamaru, would you tell me what happened?"

"I just… I don't know! We were talking and suddenly she began crying and ran away"

"What did you tell her?!"

"No… Nothing! I'm telling you that I don't know what happened! I'm just… kind of worried about her"

"Ugh!" the smartest guy she had ever known seemed the dumber at that moment and she was losing her patience since he wasn't telling her anything useful to help him. "Wait here. I'm going to go looking for her so that you two can talk"

"Wai-"

"If you're gone when I come back, you're dead" when she turned back to say this, she noticed that he seemed really terrified. He was kind of cute now that he was completely defenseless, like a little puppy.

She went quickly upstairs, turned right and knocked on the second door, in Temari's room. "Temari, are you there?" she waited a few seconds, ear close to the door but no sound nor voice came from the inside. She tried the doorknob and it was unlocked. She opened the door slowly and quietly in case she was just asleep, but when she peeked inside, Temari was nowhere to be found. Ino went running downstairs where Shikamaru was waiting for her. "She's not here"

"Damn it!" he was really angry, and before Ino could say anything else, he left.

"WAIT!" she screamed, but he was already gone.

* * *

Naruto, Sasuke and Karin had spent the hours since they got to the town planning their next move to finally hunt that 'little bastard' (as Naruto named her), until Karin finally gave up the fight against her notable tiredness and fell asleep on the spot where she was sitting with her back against the wall. Of course, Naruto and Sasuke took their time in noticing that because they were really into their talk.

"I'm telling you, most of the cities that hadn't been attacked yet are the ones that doesn't have a squad sent from Konoha to patrol them"

"Well, are you suggesting we should go to the ones that already have squads?" Naruto wasn't following Sasuke's reasoning at all. "Don't you think that would be even more useless than we staying here just as Kakashi said?" he yawned and waited for Sasuke's reply, but… "Sasuke?" He noticed his friend was looking at the red haired girl with tired eyes and cleared his throat. "I guess we can discuss this in the morning. We need her to untie this anyway" he stood up.

"Yeah" Sasuke finally looked at Naruto again when he was approaching Karin to take her to her futon on the other side of the room. "I'm taking the first guard, so go to sleep" Naruto took Karin and put her slowly on her futon.

"Should I give her a goodnight kiss?" of course, Naruto was just joking, but he was also trying Sasuke. He wasn't completely sure, but Naruto thought he caught Sasuke with a I'll-kill-you-if-you-do-face for a second before he went back to his usual I-don't-care-what-you-do face. "I'm kidding" he laughed. "We might be distant relatives or something. Plus, Sakura would be very disappointed if she find out I've kissed another woman"

Sasuke answered first with a jerky grin and then with a really sarcastic "yeah, I bet she would" then he turned and walked towards the window to keep watch "good night"

"Hey! You think she'll never love me because she likes you, right?" Naruto knew Sakura had said a million times that she had feelings for Sasuke, but Naruto was positive that people change and feelings too. Even though, he was kind of jealous of his friend.

"I said good night, usuratonkachi"

"Just don't forget I'm not good at giving up"

* * *

Temari was looking at the stars, lying on a rooftop when Ino found her. Shikamaru's visit had left her pretty concerned about those two that she had decided to go looking for Temari too. They were kind of friends now, after all.

"Hey! What's up?" she decided that it would be better not to tell her anything about Shikamaru till she knew what was happening.

"Oh, hi, Ino. How was the mission?" she seemed really calmed.

"Pretty easy, actually. What are you doing up here?"

"Kakashi-sama gave me the day, so I'm trying to clear up my mind a bit"

"May I join you?" Temari gave the floor beside her some pads as an answer so Ino leaned back by her side. "You look better than I thought"

"WOW! Thank you but I don't-"

"I didn't mean it that way!" they both laughed. "Is everything ok?" she finally asked. Temari gave her a look as if she didn't know what she was talking about. Ino sighed "Shikamaru went to our place, looking for you".

Temari stayed still and quiet, but her eyes were moving fast through the night sky as if she was looking for something that couldn't be found.

"He… seemed really worried about you" as she said this, the moon that had been hidden behind a cloud was finally visible again and Ino, thanks to the moonlight, was able to see clearly that her eyes were, in fact, swollen.

"Why would he be worried about someone like me?" the calmed tone in Temari's voice was now gone.

"What do you mean someone like you?"

"Well, I'm just a foreign kunoichi who visits Konoha occasionally and just for political issues. I mean, he's a really good friend of yours but-"

"But WHAT?!" Ino had to stop her there. She even changed her position to sit and look at her better. "Are you telling me you're not even friends?" Temari didn't answer. "We both know Shikamaru. You know he wouldn't bother in worrying about something if it didn't really mean something to him. I saw his face, he even told me himself: HE IS WORRIED ABOUT YOU" Ino use to talk faster when she's mad, which she was "What's all this about anyway?! He said you started crying out of nowhere but, why would you do that? If he did or said anything-"

"It's not it… He didn't say or do anything wrong, that's why… My mind is just playing games on me, ok? That's all" she sat, hugging her legs and Ino stayed quiet. "I DO started crying all of a sudden but I didn't really know why till I got up here. I ran away from Shikamaru after he noticed that I was crying cause I didn't want him to see me like that, and then, when I heard him by the door I ran away from my room because I had just stopped crying and didn't feel like seeing him yet" Ino kind of knew how she felt so she just let her do the talk. "Back in my room I just let all my feelings out with my tears, but it wasn't until I got here that I really began to think about how I feel"

"And, how do you feel?" she saw how Temari hugged her legs tightly before answering.

"I…" even though she seemed fine, her voice started trembling "I feel like a horrible person because I'm supposed to be here to help Konoha as a Suna's ally but instead of that being my first thought in the morning I'm worrying about…" she punched the floor with her left hand so strong that Ino could feel the floor trembling under them. Now she was mad, and suddenly pointing a finger to Ino's face, she said "promise me you won't say a word about this" Ino answered simulating she was zipping her mouth shut, and after a deep breath, Temari finally said "I think I'm jealous of that … what was her name again? Tomo…"

"Tomoko?... OMG! I KNEW IT! YOU L-" Temari covered Ino's mouth

"You promised" Ino shrugged in response. She was really happy for them, but why was it so hard for them to realize their true feelings about each other? At least one of them seemed to know now…

"But you're not denying it, are you?" she said happily but in a lower voice.

"Well… I don't know. I had never thought about it before…but I guess I may really like him. I mean, he's a great guy, isn't him?" Ino couldn't take the smile off her face. "But… I feel like we've been so far away from each other and for so long that-" she stopped when she heard a noise behind her and then heard him speaking and out of breath.

"FUFF! Here you are… you seem better now" Shikamaru had recovered his breath and now his hands were behind his head, as usual. "Well, I guess I'll just go home now. See you!" Temari's face was red and she could feel her heart beating really fast against her chest.

"Do you think he…"

* * *

"Sasuke" Naruto's voice took him out of his trance. He was supposed to be on guard but, with the surroundings that calmed, he couldn't help being carried by his thoughts to the depths of his mind. "It's my turn to take your place now"

"You're a lucky bastard" Sasuke was standing with his left shoulder resting on the window frame, looking outside.

"What?! Where did that came from?" apparently he wasn't that out of his trance yet.

"You love a lot of people; you have a lot of people you want to protect. You love Sakura since I can remember, and I remember it because you used to shout it more than once a day. You have all those feelings inside of you and you're so comfortable with them… how do you do that?" Naruto was stunned. All of a sudden Sasuke wanted to talk about his feelings? "I mean, aren't you afraid of somehow losing those bonds? Aren't you afraid of being hurt by those people? Or worse, afraid of unintentionally hurting them? And, how do you even know that your love for Sakura is different from the love you feel for a friend or for the village?"

"Ok, who are you and what did you do with my emo friend?"

"Who are you calling emo!?" said Sasuke now looking Naruto right in the eyes. "Forget it"

"HAHAHA Relax! I was just kidding, man!" Sasuke returned to look outside the window and Naruto tried to look for the best words to answer. Standing beside Sasuke, he said "I'm not afraid of feeling if that's what you asked" Sasuke turned to see him "I… we all have feelings, you know? All kind of them, whether they are sweet or sour, we all own them. I know people can hurt you, but if you banned yourself from your sweet feelings in order to protect yourself from your sour feelings you'll just end up hurting yourself harder than anyone else could hurt you" when Sasuke looked at him with a confused expression on his face, Naruto remembered that Sasuke's mind and his worked very differently. "What I'm trying to say is that you can be as lucky as you say I am, you just have to be honest with yourself and embrace those feelings you fear that much. And if you want to know what you're feeling, stop trying to feel something, just feel what you're feeling and you'll know what that is" maybe that last part confused Sasuke a bit again because he looked outside the window as if he was pondering Naruto's words and stayed there for a few seconds.

"Hmp" Sasuke smirked and then, as if he was thanking him, he punched Naruto's shoulder with his right hand, turned around and heading to his futon he said "good night, usuratonkachi"

Naruto finally crossed his arms and said "good night, scaredy cat"


	7. Chapter 7

Shikamaru took a deep breath before he even touched the medic squad office's door. He couldn't take Temari's words out of his head.

" _I guess I may really like him. I mean, he's a great guy, isn't him?_ _But… I feel like we've been so far away from each other and for so long that-"_

' _Who was she talking about? Perhaps a Suna's shinobi? She's been away from Suna for a long time now… is that why she cried yesterday? Because she misses some-_ ' Shikamaru shook that thought out of his head. As soon as he'd crossed that door he'll have to work and he shouldn't have anything in his mind but what was related to his current mission.

As soon as he opened the door, a sweet voice welcomed him.

"Hello, Shika!" Tomoko was wearing her white lab coat and was carrying some bottled samples "How's your day going?" she was having troubles carrying all those bottles so he ran to help her.

"Let me help you with that" Tomoko gave him some of the bottles. They put them on a table and then Tomoko started classifying them "Is there any new information about the illness?"

Tomoko adjusted her glasses and looked at him again "Well, remember that information that Naruto sent about the girl with the sharingan? Apparently that information was not so accurate. Yesterday came in a report from one of the special squads sent to protect the villages, it says that the girl doesn't have a sharingan but a rinnegan!" Shikamaru couldn't believe it, another annoying rinnegan user was causing troubles again. "But, wait. There's more, it is said that the rinnegan is just in her right eye and that in her left eye she has a byakugan. Even though it is not still confirmed, this could explain most of the so-called symptoms that the victims have shown-"

"Tenketsu *****!" Shikamaru suddenly shouted. "She attacks the pressure points of her enemies' chakra pathway system to make them feel sick!" Tomoko smiled.

"Yes! If she really happens to have the byakugan, most of the symptoms shown by her victims would be explained, though the reason why they don't seem to heal would be still unknown." Tomoko was looking at Shikamaru with a really sweet smile in her face.

"Why are you smiling then?" Shikamaru had never understood Tomoko's persistent smile, it was like if she was hiding something. Normally he would've just ignored it, but they had plenty of work to do, the reason why the symptoms could not heal were still unknown, people were still dying and she was smiling as if the work was done… or maybe it was that he just wasn't in the mood.

"Well, I'm happy because we may have made a real progress today, don't you think?" Tomoko smiled again.

"Maybe you're right" Shikamaru grinned. He had to relax a little bit "Let's check the docs to see if our theory fits the facts. I'll also make sure to send a warning to all the squads to be aware of not being touched by that girl at any cost and to ask them to send any information that could confirm that she has a byakugan in her left eye" Shikamaru was on his way to the door when he felt a grab on his back.

"Wait!... May I ask you something?" he turned and saw Tomoko standing there with a serious expression on her face. He nodded. "Are… are you and Temari-sempai da…dating?" he could see clearly how Tomoko's face went all red, but her question triggered Temari's words in his mind again.

" _I guess I may really like him. I mean, he's a great guy, isn't him?-I guess I may really like him. I mean, he's a great guy-I guess I may really like him. I mean-I guess I may really like him-I may really like him-really like him…_ "

Shikamaru felt… felt something breaking inside of him. He was angry. He was sad. He was hurt. Even though the answer to that question was now clearer than ever in his mind, he was afraid of saying it out loud. "N…no… we are not" Tomoko's eyes lit up.

"Great!" she covered her mouth and her face went red again. "I… I'm sorry. I just wanted to ask you…" she cleared her throat "would you go out with me one of these days?" Shikamaru was stunned. He hadn't expected that, what would he say? Then, another thought crossed his mind ' _Could Temari being dating someone at Suna?... It is pretty possible, judging by her words. Also, she is older than me, why would she be interested in going out with someone like me? If she wants to go out with an older guy, fine. I can date a girl too.'_

"I don't see why not"

"Great!" Tomoko even clapped her hands and jumped out of happiness with her cheeks still red. "Don't worry, I'll make sure to send the messages" and she was out of the room faster than a dog chasing a kid in a bike.

As soon as Tomoko was gone and the door closed behind him, he collapsed. Tears wanted to go out of his eyes and holding them in made his heart ache even more, so he let them out. He couldn't understand anything. For the first time since his dad's funeral, his head was a mess. How could something so irrelevant and that he had known all along could cause him such pain? He wanted to be with Temari, but at the same time he didn't want to see her or think about her for a while.

Eventually, he stopped the tears, but the ache in his chest seemed to have arrived there to stay.

 ** _*_** _Tenketsu literally means "pressure points"_

* * *

"WAKE UP, YOU TWO!" Karin screamed. The sun was still not visible on the horizon when Naruto and Sasuke jumped out of their futons.

Sasuke looked first at Karin and then turned to Naruto on his left. "Why were you sleeping, dobe?!"

Naruto completely ignored Sasuke and was yawning when Karin intervened "I woke up like two hours ago, couldn't fall asleep again and sent him to sleep. I'm feeling better and it was about time for me to keep watch, but that's not important right now. We need to go now if we want to find that little bastard before noon." Naruto and Sasuke looked at each other blankly. She seemed like a completely different girl. "Are you comfy sitting down there?" she said kindly "Come on! You hadn't even told me the whole plan yet" and the kindness was gone. They both took their things as fast as they could and they had left the village even before the sun rose. When they got to the outsides of the village they stopped to talk about their 'plan'.

"THERE'S NO PLAN!?" Karin was furious. "Then what are we supposed to do?! Walk around hoping we can find her before she attacks again?!"

"Do you have a better plan? Because I'd love to hear it" Naruto said.

"I don't know… why don't we split? We would be covering more-"

"Don't you remember what she did to you?" Sasuke said. "If we split and you-" his face felt warmer so he corrected himself quickly "I mean, if one of us gets knocked down like that, how is it going to be better than just remain together?" Naruto crossed his arms, proud as if he had said it.

He was right, Karin knew it. "What about splitting and look for her in the surroundings of the village? That way we could use our wireless radios to steadily communicate with each other. I mean, that girl can appear and disappear at will anyway so I think it would be good if we stayed close to the village just in case she appears around here"

"Wow. She even came up with a better plan than yours, Sasuke" Karin gave Naruto an angry look cause he was underestimating her but Sasuke just smirked, getting his wireless radio out.

"Let's go" he said, and the three of them split in different directions. Sasuke went to the west, Karin to the northwest and Naruto to the southwest. "Remember, anything you see, anything you hear you have to tell us, got it?"

"Yeah" Naruto said. They waited for Karin's answer but it never came.

"Got it, Karin?" Sasuke repeated.

"Yeah, yeah… we got it" she sounded as a teenage girl responding to her parent's dumb question after a scold. "Just pay close attention to your surroundings and let us do the same. If we have something to repor-" she suddenly stopped.

"Karin?!" they both said.

"What the-?!"

"Naruto?!" he had just said that when out of the blue she appeared, sitting in a tree in front of him. Sasuke stopped.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't Sasuke Uchiha, the traitor from Konoha" she was swinging her legs happily now. "What are you doing?! Did you really agreed with your comrades in splitting? I think now there's no need to tell you that it was the worst choice you could've made"

"What did you do with them?" Sasuke took out his sword and was ready to fight.

"Oh, don't worry. They're both on a genjutsu. Apparently the red hair is pretty clever cause she knows she's trapped in a genjutsu, unfortunately I cannot say the same about the blond boy but, don't worry, it wouldn't be of use anyway. They're gonna be there till I want them out, so you could say we have plenty of time to talk" she took off her hood. Now he could see clearly the rinnegan in her right eye but he couldn't see her left eye because it was covered with her hair. "That's right, I'm an Uchiha" she smiled, and a chill ran down Sasuke's spine. "I guess you could say we're distant relatives"

"What do you want?" Sasuke asked. He was trying to come up with any plan to help his friends.

"I'm glad you asked! I'm here to take you with me" Sasuke's doubtful face seemed to being entertaining her. "Yeah, you know, since we're both Uchiha and your whole family is dead now that you killed your broth-" Sasuke reached her before she could finish that word. He had her by the neck with his Susanoo for a second, but before he noticed, she was gone. "How rude!" he couldn't see her, it was just her voice now "You didn't even let me finish! Hopefully if you can only hear me you'll listen to what I have to say" Sasuke was looking from south to north, wondering who he should go looking for first. "I knew you would want to go to the rescue of your friends as soon as I was gone. Don't worry, it doesn't bother me, just make sure to choose wisely now because you may only be able to save one" Sasuke was trying to ignore her, but he knew she was right.

"Kuchiyose no jutsu!" two big hawks appeared in front of him. He got up on one of them "We're going northwest, you already know Naruto, so go southwest and bring him to us" both hawks got up in the air in less than a second.

"Wise move, I have to say. Anyway, as I was saying before, since you have no family left and Konoha is the one to blame, what about you come with me and together we avenge the whole Uchiha clan?" Sasuke remained quiet. His priority was to find Karin, and he knew that the more information he could take from the girl, the easier it could be to beat her. "No answer yet, huh? Well, I bet you're pretty worried for your girlfriend's life, aren't you? Don't worry, she'll be fine. She's being a good girl. On the other side, your blond friend could be having troubles right now… what are you gonna do about it?" she laughed loud and in a frightening way. Sasuke's mind was full of horrifying thoughts he couldn't put in place. The inner battle against his head and his heart wasn't helping him. He couldn't come up with a plan, he could just have faith in the decisions he'd made by now and in the ones he would eventually make…


End file.
